California is still one of our favorite places to visit and we are back this year. Last year we drove up the coast from San Diego to San Francisco. This year, although we hated to repeat what we did, it was such a great experience that we started the trip around the LA area and hope (weather permitting) to continue up the coast to Oregon.

Along our route, we stopped for a night in Barstow, CA to see the Calico Ghost Town. Back in the 1880s the town of Calico became one of the richest silver mining districts in the state of California. At that time population was 1200 with 22 saloons and it produced $886 million in silver and $45 million in borax. However like most towns in the West, when the price of silver dropped from $1.31 ounce to $.63, Calico became a ghost town. Thanks to the help of Walter Knott, founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, Calico is one of the few remaining original mining towns of the Western United States. You can take a tour through Maggie mine, ride the train around the mountain or take a leisurely walking tour of the town which features many interesting buildings with great history. Although our favorite ghost town is still Chloride, NM, we did enjoy Calico, CA.

We headed for the coast and spent several days at Lake Cachuma, a nice county campground close to one of our favorite towns, Solvang. Leave it to Jack to “sniff” out a model airplane fly in that weekend! There was a very active group of 40-45 men flying their planes with pontoons over Lake Cachuma. What a fantastic sight seeing 5 – 6 planes flying at once over the lake. Then one man was screaming through the water with his Miss Budweiser boat, equipped with a weed eater motor. Needless to say, Jack was in awe and we spend a few hours each day enjoying the different planes. But there are other things to see and of course our first stop after that was Solvang, a neat Danish town, to enjoy their delicious aebleskivers, (a round Danish pancake served with raspberry sauce and powder sugar) and walk around the town. But we agreed not to do everything we did last year so we drove out to Highway 1 to enjoy the coastal drive. We stopped in Lompoc, CA to look around. Here we found a grove of unusual trees that the town is very proud of, called Italian Stone Pines. We were told that this grove of trees was planted in 1930 and is one of the largest in the US. Would really like to plant some of those on our lot. Back to the coast, we stopped once again at Pismo Beach but preferred the Shell Beach next door; walked the neat shops at San Luis Obispo and the Mission San Luis Obispo de Toloso; spent a day at Santa Barbara, walking the streets and enjoying the ocean front; drove to Buellton for a Danish pancakes breakfast which was unbelievable; enjoyed the awesome homes in Malibu and just wished we could see the inside of just one home.

Time to move on so we drove to San Lorenzo Park in King City which is a neat park with all kinds of historic farm equipment on display. Back to the coast with an exciting shortcut thru Fort Hunter Liggett Army Base – the only way to get to the coast. It was a scenic drive but you have a good hour of one lane switchback roads. Luckily we left the Monaco Moose at camp! Again there is nothing better than driving the coastal highway, enjoying the many vista views and of course stopping at another favorite town, Cambria. Along this route you do pass Hearst Castle which is a great place to tour, and which we did tour last year. If time, be sure to stop in Cayucos with all their antique stores and of course Morro Bay with the famous rock and delicious salt water taffy.

Time to move on to Laguna Seca Racetrack and RV Park, outside Monterey, another one of my favorite parks (see why we love California). This park overlooks the racetrack and you enjoy the cars or motorcycles practicing during the day and the view of the valley. It is hard to leave but there is so much to do in this area. We did have to repeat last year by spending time shopping in
Carmel, going to the beach and walking in the sand and then driving the famous 17-mile drive. There are so many spots along this drive to just pull over and have a picnic which we did. You also get to see the elephant seals, harbor seals and the cute sea otters, not to mention all the gorgeous homes along the way. Another day we headed to Cannery Row in Monterrey, next to the Monterrey Aquarium which we did last year and we were tempted to repeat again this year.
We spent many days just driving Highway 1 to enjoy the great ocean view.

This area of California is one of our favorites and am sure we will be back again, but time to move on to San Francisco.